Adventures of an Ancient Space Battleship

Megumi leaned back in her seat while she peered through her own monitors. A smile on her face. Kiru was currently enjoying dinner with her two sisters, Eriku and E-5 who had recently picked a proper name, Eris. The girl was still trying out, while Eriku was still getting used to being the only one in her head. They both were, but Eriku was used to taking a backseat. More by choice than anything else, but she was used to it.

As she watched Qelu walked into the room the sisters were in. Her belly had swollen up nicely. Megumi figured she would be giving birth in another month or so. Noting that down, she scheduled a check up for Qelu. Knowing the girl’s schedule and habits she slotted her for just after lunch in three days. She knew Qelu would be free and then sent her a notice about it.

Their little get together seemed to be going well. Something Megumi was happy about. It meant she had done well with her plans. The sisters were reconnecting and she could see something further developing between Kiru and Qelu.

Before she could think further, her navigational subroutine reported that she had arrived at her destination. A red dwarf system not far from the gate. Bycari Beta had seven planets, three gas giants, one planet with a very toxic atmosphere, one a frozen iceball, and one planet was too close to the sun. Its atmosphere had burned away long ago and the surface was cooked. Her destination however was the second planet, a heavily irradiated world that had been chosen as a shipyard site due to it being rich in heavy metals.

Something was still active in the system as she was detecting minor interference with her warp drive. Power draw had spiked twenty-nine percent to compensate for field disruptions. She’d already analyzed the patterns and determined she was dealing with an FTL Damper, wide spectrum from the look of it. Designed to disrupt the FTL drives of any ship trying to reach the system. One of advanced design, but her powerful military-grade engines just didn’t care. Although she was drawing from her Omega reactor now just to maintain her warp field. At this speed she usually wouldn’t need to use that particular reactor for this. The Subspace Energy Wells she used were usually enough for interstellar flight even while cloaked. Of course she could have turned off the cloak, but she didn’t like that option.

Now that she was here, she began high-intensity scans. The shipyard was exactly where it was supposed to be, taking up the entire orbit of Bycari Beta II. Hundreds of ancient slips designed for cruiser-size hulls. Ships in the two to three-thousand-meter range. Ships of that size represented the backbone of most interstellar fleets.

Scanning the slips and yard facility she noted that the slips seemed to be in good shape, yard structures were intact with active fusion signatures on nine out of twelve hubs. The other three looked stable, with minimal power levels. From the look of things she suspected the local mainframe had taken the generators offline. Phased Fusion Cell Arrays were stable highly efficient plasma fusion reactors with outputs that could rival a star. Reactors of this type could be dated as far back as the Nomadic Age and they continue to be in use today. After all they were stable, reliable and provided a decent output, of course they lacked the sheer output of an Omega Reactor nor did they provide the virtually inexhaustible supply of energy that an Energy Well could produce.

Seeing nine of them all in operation was quite good for her, it meant the shipyard had power, but then her scan turned something else up. It seemed she wasn’t alone here, someone else was here. They had a ship docked at berth 239 and then her next scan picked up a shuttle and base camp on the surface not far from the old planetary capital. While the world had always been rather irradiated, Terrans didn’t really care about radiation. 

Guests were suboptimal, she did another scan of the ship. Noticing that people were boarding the vessel. It seemed her scans had drawn attention. They had yet to raise shields, but they were actively scanning now. Likely looking for her, she started loading drones into a launcher. Prepping a single volley of ten drones, while marking targets on their ship. The idea was to scare them without killing them. In seconds she calculated a firing solution that would effectively cripple their ship without destroying their ability to jump or killing any of the crew. Then she sat on the trigger for a moment or two waiting. When the ship pulled out of the berth and raised shields ninety-six seconds after she had made her choice, she recalculated and fired.

The Admiral watched the damaged ships pulling into port. Ships that had managed to make it back from the engagement from Telna. Notably Commander Anai Tomis and her ship weren’t among them. She’d already read the report, the Commander had personally led the detachment at the rear of the formation. Holding off the enemy cruisers long enough for the rest of the fleet to make the jump point and escape the system. It was a small victory, but no one was sure if she made it out herself. If she did, they would know in a few days. The admiral figured that she would show up somewhere or contact them if she got out. Not that she had high hopes.

Getting these ships back alone however, was already something of a small miracle. More interestingly however was that the menace had just suddenly halted their advance. They had pushed through dozens of systems in a matter of weeks. That left her to wonder what was special about the core worlds of Telna, Mirak, and Seridis. Why stop? 

Sadly the answer was proving rather elusive. She figured going back might yield answers but it was also possible that it would prompt a response. Worse, her analysts concluded that any mission sent into hostile space would have a low chance of success with a high risk of losing everyone they sent. By every measure any intelligence mission she authorized would be a suicide mission with almost no chance of accomplishing anything. Nothing was worse than trying to fight a war without information. How can you fight an enemy if you don’t know what he is doing, how he thinks and why he is attacking?

Early attempts to glean more using cloaked vessels hadn’t gone well. While the recently lost worlds of Telna, Mirak, and Seridis were now black boxes. Nothing in or out, the enemy had total control, she was left with nothing to go on. Besides the reports from vessels that survived the battle. Obviously they needed a better cloak or a better understanding of Menace sensor technology.

Someone tapped her shoulder and she turned to see one of her aides holding a report, “Did something happen?”

She handed the report over, “We have lost contact with the science expedition at the Ruins of Kirach.”

For a moment she just stared at the report, muttering Kirach to herself. Then the name clicked. Kirach was the site of an ancient alien complex millions of years old located in a star system that was almost impossible to reach. FTL drives simply didn’t function properly within ten lightyears of the system. Getting a ship there had been a feat in and of itself. Regardless it was a site of great interest, especially given how well-preserved the ruins were. She recalled early research had been conducted via long-range scans, it wasn’t until last year that they were able to send a team in using a ship with a modified hyperdrive that was able to traverse the disrupted region of hyperspace. It was a difficult and long journey but they did it.

“What happened?”

The aide pulled a video out and showed her, “We only received a few seconds of telemetry before we lost contact.”

The Admiral watched the video as ten blue lights appeared from nowhere, then shot towards the ship and tore into it. With it came damage reading reports and crew shouting on the bridge before the comms cut out. “What were those?”

“Drones, sir. We have encountered similar weapons from Ancient shield worlds but the Guardians have never been known to fire while cloaked. Worse, if there was a guardian at Kirach it would have made itself known earlier.”

“Meaning this is someone else. Who?”

“We don’t know, but the only logical conclusion is that the creators of the Guardians have returned.”

“The Ancients have returned?” she replied. Why? With the menace on one side, the prospect of invisible invaders on another and now this? She just didn’t need this.

“It seems like it, but we don’t know which ancients they are or what they want.”

“Keep this quiet for now, we don’t need more panic, but get someone to look into this. I want all the information pertaining to the ancient powers on my desk by tomorrow.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Ruyi blinked a bit of sleep out of her eyes as she slipped out of her bed. Taking a moment to recall her recent experience. Already she felt different, she felt more. There was an awareness that she just simply didn’t have before now. Glancing at the door, she just knew there was a drone on the other side, set there as a guard. In the Nursery she knew R23-G was currently conducting a check on the babies, the twins were stable and currently on track. Her Auntie was still next door and had been fed just an hour ago. It was amazing how she just knew all of that. A benefit of being part of the collective now.

Taking only a moment to explore her new link, she put it aside and headed for the bathroom. Seeing herself in the mirror, she smiled, enjoying how cute she looked in her new clothing. Pulling it off, she drew a bath and reached through the link to request a meal. Almost immediately she heard the drones talk and one of them performing a low priority task shifted to preparing food for her.

It was neat that she didn’t have to order a specific drone. That they could work out some assignments for themselves. Something she felt would be helpful. In the meantime, she could relax and enjoy her bath.

As she was soaking in her huge tub, she felt a connection, it was R23-G which she now just knew was just a personal designation. There was more to her number than just that. “Morning princess. This unit needs to know how you are feeling?”

“Great,” she responded.

R23-G quickly sent, “As expected. This unit has been assigned to be your personal medical drone and advisor. All information required for this role has been loaded into this unit and this unit will abandon unrelated duties once sufficient drones are available to fill currently assigned tasks.”

She nodded as she listened. That actually made a certain amount of sense, but she did have a question. “Will I be meeting another princess at some point?”

“Yes, a teacher has been selected and will arrive when her duties permit. She is currently directing efforts to provide suitable care areas for children too old for the nurseries but not old enough to take up duties as drones or princesses as the case may be.”

She blinked, “Don’t those already exist? There are schools, parks and playgrounds all around the city.”

“There are, but not all of them are suitable or placed in ideal locations. These issues are being fixed to allow for a more efficient raising of the young. The current layout is also not conducive to protecting them”

“I see. Are there any major things I should be aware of?”

“Your primary duties relate to the processing of female units and the care of the young.”

“Right, I’ve been wondering why only females here? The collective doesn’t seem to care otherwise.”

“Biological differences between sexes mean it’s better to segregate care. Processing and secondary requirements at this facility means it is more efficient for long term goals to concentrate the processing of new female drones here.”

Ruyi took a moment to swallow that. It seemed she would have much to learn in that area. She spent a moment longer interacting as she soaked in the bath, but then she grew aware that her meal was nearly done. Almost reluctantly she left the bath, dried herself and dressed before heading to get her meal.